


Sleepover

by Laurasauras



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Best Friends, Fluff, Friendship, Gay, M/M, Marauders, Marauders Friendship, Modern Marauders (Harry Potter), Movie Night, One Shot, POV Remus Lupin, Possibly Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-11
Updated: 2017-11-11
Packaged: 2019-01-31 17:40:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12687069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laurasauras/pseuds/Laurasauras
Summary: AU-modern Muggles. Sirius is staying with Remus for a week in the holidays. Remus can't believe how lucky he is to have Sirius all to himself.





	Sleepover

Remus couldn’t believe his luck. Everyone knew that Sirius and James were the ringleaders of their little group. Most people assumed that he and Pete just tagged along, that they were lucky to be in the splash zone for Sirius and James’s insane brand of genius. 

And they were geniuses, Remus never doubted that. Sure, Sirius was kept back a year and James was failing English and they were all four of them in detention more Friday afternoons than they had free, but they were magnificent. And now, Sirius was staying with him for almost a whole week. James was off skiing with his family, and Pete was a boarder, so he’d gone home for the holidays. Sirius was pretending like he might have stayed with Remus even if James was available, and that was fine. Remus was happy to pretend to believe that.

Their first two days were exhausting. Remus had little control over Sirius at the best of times, but he was feeling so lucky that he hadn’t said ‘no’ once. And, as tough as Sirius pretended to be, with his leather jacket and his hair that hung down to his shoulders, he had the enthusiasm of a puppy that’s just heard the word ‘walk’. 

‘I’m never eating again,’ Sirius declared, flopping on Remus’s bed. 

Remus sat down and arranged the pillows so he could lean against the wire frame at Sirius’s feet. Sirius wiggled his toes hopefully. Remus had idly started massaging Sirius’s feet once a few months back, caught up in an argument with James and ever since Sirius had been trying to get a repeat footrub. 

‘You say that, but it’s Sunday tomorrow,’ Remus said.

‘What’s special about Sunday?’ Sirius asked.

‘Sunday is laze about and eat day, and I don’t care what you bribe me with, I’m not leaving the house, I’m not getting out of my trackies, and I’m certainly not exercising.’

‘When have you ever exercised?’ Sirius said.

‘We spent half of today at the skate park and the other half you dragged me around the junkyard and made me carry things!’ Remus said.

‘That’s not exercise,’ Sirius said dismissively. 

‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen you tired,’ Remus said.

‘I slept less than a metre away from you just last night,’ Sirius said. He propped his head up under his hands so he could meet Remus’s eyes.

‘Yeah, but you’re the same as ever, you talk and rush around getting ready and then the second your head hits the pillow, you’re asleep. I don’t think I’ve ever even seen you yawn, except when you’re winding Ms McGonagall up.’

‘I don’t see the point in yawning,’ Sirius said, but he said it with a cheeky smile, so Remus was pretty sure he was having him on. 

Remus looked at Sirius’s bare feet again, wondering if he dared to touch them. Sirius was a very physical person, despite or maybe  _ to _ spite his cold, formal family. He used his whole body when he spoke and didn’t have an inside voice. He draped over Remus whenever they sat still and seemed to think that tackles were the best way to display affection. It had long since stopped making Remus’s heart race. It was just the way Sirius was. Of course, just because Sirius was a naturally affectionate person didn’t mean that Remus could just play with Sirius’s feet whenever he wanted. Sirius probably wouldn’t see anything wrong with it. But Remus was careful not to treat Sirius any different from the others. And he certainly wasn’t going to ever touch Pete’s feet.

‘So what is there to do in the house then, if we’re not allowed to leave?’ Sirius asked. 

Remus suddenly realised he had been staring absently at Sirius’s feet for an extended period of time and willed himself not to blush. Both he and his father blushed at the drop of a hat, which meant that he couldn’t get away with anything. It was a mystery as to why he kept being invited along to break rules with the others anyway, when every time they got dragged into Ms McGonagall’s office she would ask them if they did it and if they had, Remus’s cheeks were an obvious beacon of guilt. 

‘Ah, there’s board games and books? My dad has all the James Bond movies ...’

Sirius scrambled up so that he was sitting on his toes and leaning towards Remus. 

‘Bond, James Bond?’ he asked, his voice excited.

‘Yes?’ Remus said, trying not to look flustered.

‘I haven’t seen any James Bond movies,’ Sirius said. He had a loopy grin on his face.

Remus sat up and grabbed Sirius’s shoulders.

‘You seriously haven’t?’ he asked. In his house, James Bond was more holy than anything. 

Sirius shook his head, suddenly serious.

‘That’s unacceptable, we’re not waiting until tomorrow, we need to start now.’ Remus leapt up with uncharacteristic speed and dragged Sirius down the hall to his dad’s study. ‘Dad! Sirius hasn’t seen Bond before!’

Remus’s dad didn’t answer, having not heard anything due to his head being firmly in his book. The boys burst into his office and Sirius hovered behind Remus, his fingers light on Remus’s shoulders. For some reason, Sirius got all flustered and nervous with Remus’s dad, despite him never being flustered and despite Remus’s dad being a quiet owlish kind of man. As far as Remus knew, they had only exchanged a few words, but maybe that was the problem; Sirius rarely had trouble talking to anyone.

‘Why are you two not out raving or something, elsewhere?’ Lyall asked, looking over his reading glasses in that way he had like he had forgotten there was a world outside his book.

‘ _ Dad _ , would  _ I _ ever go to a rave?’ Remus asked. ‘Do they even still  _ do _ raves?’

Sirius stopped trying to read the back of Lyall’s book without entering the room properly and clasped Remus on both cheeks. 

‘It is now my life’s ambition to see you at a rave,’ he said solemnly. 

Remus struggled to look appropriately horrified while his stomach performed loop-de-loops. Apparently no amount of bear hugs and casual touches could have desensitised him to this.

‘ _ Sirius _ hasn’t seen any Bond movies,’ Remus blurted, feeling both relieved and a bit sad when Sirius dropped his face to look somewhat sheepishly at Lyall.

‘Right.’ Lyall stalked to the corner of his office and dragged the heavy old-school trunk that housed the two dozen DVDs. He also had most of them on VHS, though obviously not the newer ones. ‘I know you’ll want to start him on  _ Goldfinger _ , but I really do think chronological is best. When do you go home? Because this is about 50 hours of movie wonder, young man, and I really must insist you see them all if you’re to keep associating with my son.’

‘Yes, sir!’ Sirius said, before wincing. Sirius didn’t even call their headmaster ‘sir’, despite associating more with Mr Dumbledore more so than the average student. Sirius heaved the trunk up to chest height. Lyall and Remus shared a baffled look before Sirius staggered back to Remus’s room, his breath impressively even. 

‘How’s he going to put that down?’ Lyall asked, sounding rather curious.

Remus gave his dad a look of alarm and rushed to catch up, just making it through the door as Sirius dropped the trunk gracelessly on the camp bed that had been set up for him to sleep on. Remus groaned as Sirius gave him an easy grin.

‘We could have carried that together,’ Remus said.

‘I may have panicked.’

 

Remus had seen all the Bond movies at least three times, and his favourites even more, so it was much more enjoyable to watch Sirius’s reactions than to pay attention to the movies that he could quote along with. As he always did when he was forced to be still, Sirius ignored any concept of personal space and lounged against Remus, gripping Remus’s hands whenever he was excited, which was often. Though the older movies were cheesy, and really not very scary, Sirius was obviously in it for the experience and all of it delighted him. At the climax of  _ Thunderball _ , one Remus tended to skip, Sirius got so excited he literally fell off the couch. Remus felt triumphant when Sirius started to yawn in  _ You Only Live Twice _ , but the novelty soon wore off; Sirius’s yawns were loud, bone-cracking and highly contagious. Despite having stayed up much later on other occasions, they both decided to sleep and return to their binge-watching the next day. 

Remus always felt a bit self conscious sleeping around his friends. James thought it was hilarious that Remus bothered to floss and Sirius never wore shirts to bed, while Remus wore full pyjamas. When Pete had commented on Sirius’s bare chest once, Sirius had told them they were lucky he deigned to wear anything at all, and that thought tended to haunt Remus, even though the conversation had been nearly two years ago.

Sirius leaned against Remus while they brushed their teeth and Remus shouted at himself mentally to get a grip, watching his reflection and impressed that he looked fairly neutral, despite his inner freak-outs. 

They both got into Remus’s bed, as they had every night. Sirius had perched dubiously on the camp bed for all of 30 seconds on the first day before deciding that Remus would be sharing his bed instead. There was plenty of room. Remus was powerless to say no. 

Sirius ranted about the films, ranking the women and the villains and the fight scenes, seemingly without drawing breath and certainly without needing a response from Remus. When he finally finished, they both realised at the same time that the light was still on.

‘Dibs not!’ they both said at the same time.

‘Jinx!’ they both said at the same time.

There was a moment while they both looked at each other, eyes narrowed, wary of the danger of a double jinx. 

‘Please don’t make me get up,’ Sirius said, making puppy-dog eyes.

Remus sighed and heaved himself out of bed. He made a drama out of it, unwilling to let Sirius know how much power the puppy-dog eyes had. He also didn’t want to admit that he was much less likely to injure himself on the journey back, seeing as it was his room. If he did, he’d be stuck turning the light off every time this happened. When he climbed back into the bed, he found himself right on the edge. It was harder to be brave about getting close when he couldn’t see the distance between them.

‘I love you,’ Sirius said in his hopeful, cheeky voice.

‘Love you, too,’ Remus said, not putting on the gloom. It was quite depressing how true that was.

Sirius reached out and stroked Remus’s face roughly; it was almost a slap. Remus pushed him away wearily and then tensed, suddenly unsure where Sirius was or what he was doing. It was silent.

He hadn’t been joking when he said that Sirius usually fell asleep instantly. It felt weird to know that they were both awake, both facing one another, in the complete dark. Sirius cleared his throat softly and Remus jumped. Remus resisted scratching his leg because he didn’t want to move.

The thing was, he just wasn’t sure that he was being ridiculous. He didn’t think he was intrinsically unlovable, couldn’t think that, actually, seeing as Sirius had once told him at length how much he liked him, to the delight of James and Pete, who loved seeing Remus uncomfortable. 

_ I love your neat blond hair and your little nose and the way you seem all sensible and then you have three sugars in your tea like a maniac. I love your serious voice and the way you always let me copy your French homework but never your English, because you have standards. _

The list had gone on for quite a while. Loudly. The girl who had just broken up with Sirius, saying that he loved his friends more than her, was not impressed. It was all for her benefit, but the words still stuck with Remus. Just because Sirius had been shouting them in the cafeteria on bended knee did not mean that he was making it all up. It had to come from somewhere, right?

And maybe, maybe Sirius felt like he had done his part, and Remus was the one who had to make the first move. 

Remus inched his hand closer to Sirius, feeling suddenly wide awake.

His bedroom was pitch black, he had no idea how far away Sirius was. 

Maybe if he just touched Sirius’s hand, he could pretend it was an accident if Sirius jumped away, but if Sirius touched his hand back …

Sirius might be affectionate, but it would mean something completely different tonight. Surely he could feel the tension. It couldn’t just be in Remus’s head.

_ I don’t need friends _ , Remus thought wildly. It was worth the risk. Finally, his fingers brushed warm skin.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> So, I actually wrote this as a short story for something else, but went and found-replaced things to make it fanfic, so if I've missed something (for example I found that I had accidentally changed benefit to Siriusefit when I changed names), please let me know!  
> I think that awful feeling of being in love with a friend but not knowing whether they like you back or whether you should make a move is something most people go through, and I wrote this because I thought it would be even more difficult if you were a boy who had a crush on a guy friend-it would be almost impossible to go back to friendship if your feelings weren't returned.  
> Anyway, I thought this turned out rather cute. They don't have magic, though I am tempted to write a magic version as well, because I wonder if this kind of thing might prompt a friend to use a well-intentioned Obliviate.


End file.
